Competency in the Instructional Leadership of School Leader Teams: Model Construction and Confirmation

• In Event: School Leadership in Chinese Society: Impact of Academic Research on School Improvement

Abstract

Instructional leadership has attracted research attention in the domain of educational administration and management since the 1980’s. Researchers (Hallinger, 1985; Southworth, 1999; Murphy et al., 2011）have constructed a theoretical model and analytical framework of instructional leadership, developed the instruments to measure or evaluate instructional leadership, and analyzed the related factors based on large sample data. The purpose of this study is to construct a competency model of instructional leadership to figure out the significant difference on instructional leadership between extraordinary school leader team and ordinary leader team.

The research adopted questionnaire survey as the main method. We employed and adapted the instrument of Hallinger's principals' instructional management scale (PIMRS) in the Chinese context. According to interview and expert consultation methods, we added a new dimension to PIMRS, and drew up the Principal Leader Team Instructional Leadership Questionnaire, which has good reliability and validity. Using this questionnaire, we examined the performance of the leader teams of primary and middle schools on each item, to establish primary and secondary school principal leader team instructional leadership competency model (Research I), and verify the model by confirmatory factor analysis (Research II).

In Research I, we sampled 900 teachers from 30 schools in a district of Beijing and examined instructional leadership behaviors of principal leader teams. Using SPSS17.0 to conduct mean comparison analysis and exploratory factor analysis with valid returned questionnaires, we established a principal leader team instructional leadership competency model, and identified six core competences that excellent instructional leaders are required, which include clear school teaching management goals, motivating teachers effectively, promoting teachers' professional development, providing incentives for learning, supervising and evaluating instruction, and monitoring student progress.

In Research II, we selected 360 teachers from 12 schools in another district of Beijing to evaluate principal leader teams. Using AMOS17.0 to conduct confirmatory factor analysis with valid returned questionnaires, we found that the model has high stability.

Based on the research above, we found that the instructional leadership competency of the principal leader teams highlights three aspects: clear school development goals, managing teaching activities and promoting the learning environment of the school. We suggest that education departments of government at all levels establish principal selection, training and evaluation systems based on the instructional leadership competency model, and help principals become effective instructional leaders. And we also advise that principal leader teams use the competency model for diagnosis and evaluation to identify their disadvantages and advantages in the school management and rethink their own behaviors so as to enhance the instructional leadership

Author

• Decheng Zhao, Beijing Normal University